Ex-Seattle Mayor Uhlman, Lt. Gov. Owen back Hutchison

Susan Hutchison announced Wednesday that Lt. Gov. Brad Owen and former Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman – both Democrats – were endorsing her campaign for King County executive.

Owen and Uhlman joined Hutchison at a news conference at Seattle’s Westin Hotel. Hutchison is running against Democratic King County Council Chairman Dow Constantine.

Owen, Uhlman and Hutchison

The executive’s race is officially non-partisan, but not surprisingly there were plenty of partisan politics in the run up to the Aug. 18 primary. Hutchison has never run for public office before, but she has ties to conservative groups and has donated money to Republican candidates.

Hutchison said Wednesday that both Democrats like State Auditor Brian Sonntag and Republicans like Attorney General Rob McKenna have previously supported her campaign.

“Now I am adding two more Democrat supporters,” she said.

Owen said Hutchison has been a longtime friend and that she is “the moderate candidate running for this office” who can bring people together.

“And in these times that’s a critical issue for King County,” he said.

Ulhman, who was mayor of Seattle from 1969 to 1977, said he objected to the fact that partisanship was being injected into the executive’s race. Uhlman said he voted for Barack Obama for president because he felt the country needed change.

“If you really are happy with what’s going on in King County, you should vote for the other person,” Uhlman said of Constantine. “He is not going to be a catalyst for change. He’s the president of the council.”

Uhlman was particularly critical of Constantine, saying he oversaw the “$30 million overrun” in the county’s computer overhaul, “which was junked, wasted. How many parks would that keep open?”

King County faces a $56 million operating budget deficit next year. One of the proposals Executive Kurt Triplett has floated is to stop funding for 39 parks in unincorporated King County.

“Wes Uhlman and Susan Hutchison are just plain wrong — Dow arrived at the Council in 2002 well after the County computer project ran into problems, which happened in the late 1990s. That is seven years ago, not 12 years as Uhlman claimed. If Susan and her supporters are going to make accusations, they need to get their basic facts straight, The project was halted in 2000, nearly two years before Dow came to the County,” he said.

Democrats have been trying to paint Hutchison, a former KIRO-TV broadcaster, as a conservative who is out of touch with King County’s values. Hutchison was a board member of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Seattle think tank that has advocated things like the teaching of the intelligent design alongside the theory of evolution.

Earlier this summer Constantine called a news conference to challenge Hutchison on her association with GOP candidates and causes, a move many observers feel helped him separate from the Democratic pack.

The three prominent Democratic lawmakers who unsuccessfully ran for King County executive in last month’s primary have endorsed fellow Democrat Constantine.

Hutchison has said the Democrats are attacking her to distract voters from problems they helped create, like King County’s $56 million deficit.

Uhlman, who supported Republican Dino Rossi when he ran for governor, and Owen are known as fairly conservative Democrats. But Uhlman said Wednesday he supported progressive causes like gay rights well before such issues gained wide acceptance. He noted he was called a “communist” on the front page of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer when he proposed saving Pioneer Square.

Both Hutchison and Constantine have said they support a new law that expands rights for same-sex domestic partners that is being challenged by a citizen referendum. Opponents of the “everything but marriage” gay rights law have placed Referendum 71 – an attempt to overturn the new law – on the November ballot

A KING5/SurveyUSA poll released last week shows Hutchison slightly of Constantine. Hutchison led with 47 percent, Constantine had 43 percent and 10 percent were undecided. Hutchison’s lead was within the poll’s 4.2 percent margin of error.